@DC89 Thank you so much! Glad you’re enjoying the ride.
BTW, I won’t go too far. IIRC, I think you also do the NFL polls in the Iceberg Lounge. Truth be told, once a week, whichever of my kids and their friends are around know I’ll host a dinner and they’re all welcome. After dinner and before the group moves into a game of Setback or Catan or simply watching a movie, I’ll solicit their advice on the NFL polls. While I have final say, they all do fantasy football so its a fun activity for us. Thus, I’ll still pop up there occasionally.
@TravisMorgan Thank you kindly! While I don’t expect work to slow down (or even take a vacation since a vacation for one just sounds miserable), it would be nice to get back to the concept of “work smarter, not harder”. The past year has been the exact opposite. Fortunately, after too many candidates who gave horrible interviews and even more who didn’t even show up to the interview, I finally hired someone to help start replacing the 2/3 of my employees that left a year ago. Hopefully this will help.
Unfortunately, today, when I’d rather relax at my house, instead I have to go to my practice to write not one but two letters to two different entities to let them know, among other things, that they should find new and exciting ways to commit physiological impossible actions to violate themselves. Sadly, the overwhelming amount of writing I do lately is of this nature.
So, if you would kindly allow me a moment before I have to dive into that nastiness, let me tell the tale about something far more uplifting: Christmas.
For me at Christmas time, it never really feels like Christmas, what some may call feeling or getting into the Christmas spirit, until something happens. It could be seeing Heat Miser and Snow Miser, or a different TV special, or an unexpected song, or seeing a particular decoration, or, well, just something. Suddenly, right then and there, it’s Christmas.
But 2020 was different, as it was for everybody, and going into Christmas would be different too. This time, I knew simple twists of fate would be converging that day. I knew extended family would be avoiding me, especially since my job can make me a modern day Typhoid Mary. My kids would be spending most of the holiday with my ex-wife. I had broken up with a girlfriend about a year prior, although that was definitely a good thing (I later found out if I continued dating her, my friends was planning an intervention, as if I was a drug addict 
)
So, all of these events added up to one thing: for the first time in my life, I would be going to bed on Christmas Eve night, waking up on Christmas morning and spending most of Christmas day all by myself.
It wasn’t something that made me sad or angry. After all, I was still healthy after putting my health (and actually my life) on the line everyday for a year simply for doing my job. I have the three best kids in the world. My friends and family are incredible. And I’m even friendly with my ex-wife and her husband. Consequently, whatever cross I have to bear, well, it’s a very tiny cross.
Still, it just wasn’t Christmas.
Heading into Christmas Eve and Christmas day, I decided to just treat it as some extra time to get things done. Yeah, there was some holiday type stuff to do. I put together a power tower for my boys as that was Dad Atlas’s main gift to them. I prepped food for Christmas dinner. But mainly I just did routine stuff around the house like cleaning and whatever. Did some office stuff too.
I also decided to do something else. A few days prior, the goodie box that @Applejack sent me (that I mentioned upthread) had arrived. I decided I would just save it for Christmas since it was close enough and It might be a little fun to look at then.
Well, what was in the box I did not expect. I don’t think I’ll get into the physical contents, but what was really in there was a considerable amount of thought and care and kindness. It was those contents, in that moment, that reminded me of a particular Christmas when I was a little kid so many years ago when my parents gave me my very first comic book.
Suddenly, right then and there, it’s Christmas.
So, for the gift of that moment, a moment that perhaps I needed more than I realized, to @Applejack in particular and DC Universe in general, I will always be grateful.
Oh, one more thing. She also sent me a second package. Part of me would really like to tell that story, especially since that story is so much funnier. Unfortunately I think that’s the type of story that doesn’t work well written on a screen. It really should be spoken. Besides, I think I’ve written way too much here as it is… But if you see me at NY Comic-con next weekend…
Ok, enough writing fun stuff. Time to write something evil (but they deserve it). Thank you for allowing me this indulgence. Take care.
it sooo much. Looking forward to your return